Veronica Mars!

Hi guys, I know it's been a while. I'm back from the USA, and I'm going to attempt to post more often...although I feel like this is a promise I've made before...

Anyway, in news that is super exciting to me, and possibly no-one else I know, the first footage from the Veronica Mars movie is available online!

The film, which apparently picks up several years after the last season of the cancelled series, was given the green light due to an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign, that helped it secure additional funding and whatever else happens in Hollywood. Looks like all the original cast members are returning, too!

Five for Friday

Women in Clothes. You can participate.

UK high street chain River Island have opened an online store for Australian customers. To celebrate, they have free shipping on all orders over 20GBP until this Sunday 9 June. 

Bluer Denim: A kickstarter project that aims to recycle your old denim jeans. Not sure if they post to Australia but if they do, I'm keen, this is a great social and retail project. 

 

Women's fits and styles. Image courtesy of The Bluer Denim Project.

Gorman have collaborated with a bundle of Australian artists to make incredible 'adventure' sneakers. 

Rachel Castle's adventure sneakers. Image courtesy of Gorman. 

Run Pee - the ap that tells you when in a movie to run for the toilets so you won't miss too much. 

This is one for all my pregnant friends out there - and there are A LOT of you! This website will tell you how popular your chosen name has been since the1880s. Also a bundle of other info.

This will surprise no-one but my name doesn't even have a ranking. It has not ranked on any countries' top 1000 names since The Dawn of Time. 

So it would be a great name if any of your were having girls. Just sayin'.

Five for Friday

The Australian Writers Centre runs an annual competition to find Australia's best blogs. See the 25 finalists on the AWC website, and vote for a winner!

Are we all enjoying watching the world gear-up for The Great Gatsby? Again? The fashion world is of course swinging in 20's revival. Brooks Brothers, along with Prada have released a Gatsby-inspired collection. Brooks were responsible for the mens' costuming and I for one and not ashamed to admit that I would melt for a man in this tailoring.

 

I kind of want to do this 5 minute DIY, thanks to Frankie Magazine.

Nine friends have been playing a game of tag for 23 years

Alison Brie (of Community and Mad Men) recreates internet memes with startling accuracy.

Five for Friday no.49

Mash up of movie trailers for 2012.

12 enjoyable names for relatively common things.

Generation Y Expat (Why Not) travel blog for young professionals.

The worst words for 2012.

It's 200 years since the release of the first edition of the tales of the Brothers Grimm. 

Book review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Every so often when my boss and I discuss literature, she tells me that Anna Karenina is her favourite novel and is shocked and horrified that I have not read it. 'Magnificent', I believe, is her favourite word to describe the work.

Last month, spurred on partly by her recommendation and partly by the impending release of a movie adaptation, I borrowed the novel from my sister-in-law and knuckled down to read.

This is what I expected from Anna Karenina;

• Reading exhaustion. That feeling you get when you’re a third of the way through a book and you suddenly run out of steam or lose all interest but you have to keep going. For hundreds more pages.
• Confusion from the Russian names, which I cannot pronounce let alone remember.
• That it would take me months to read and I would most likely read 2 other books in between just to give myself a break.

None of that happened.

All that happened was I fell for this story utterly and completely. It is tremendous. It is at every turn of the page the epic Russian novel you think it will be. A host of characters flow in and out of the story, as Tolstoy deftly switched between storylines and points of view, bringing the reader in to see every angle and become acquainted with the thoughts and emotions of each unhappy individual.

For those who want the three sentence overview of the novel; Anna Karenina is set in the lives of the nobility in the last decades of grand imperial Russia. The titular protagonist is the social ideal of a perfect wife and mother until she meets and falls passionately in love with Count Vronsky. In abandoning her respectable life to be with him, she leaves behind her hated husband, her beloved son and her place in the world to be an outcast. Anna's story is interwoven with those of a host of family and friends whose stories run the breadth of the human experience.
 

Keira Knightly as Anna and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky.

A zombie love story

I am not good with zombies. I'm not good with any horror genre, I can't stand the tension and I am bad with gore. So yesterday I was stunned to discover - a zombie movie I actually want to see!

It's a zombie rom-com. Yes. A zombie rom-com, complete with guns and eating people. Coming to cinemas near you in a few months' time.

Five for Friday no. 43

Today's Five has a theme: TUMBLRs!

Fiction bucket list. No, it's not books to read before you die.  

Fuck Yeah, movie posters!
 

 Thug Kitchen. Jane's new favourite tumblr.  

Research in Progress.A tumblr for my scientists friends. Of which I have almost none. 

Tumblr of a professional cartoonist and illustrator. Off-kilter Disney Princess, My Little Pony and Superhero comics. Adorable.

Images are the original artwork of Amy Mebberson.

Five for Friday no. 40

How can I have done 40 of these things? The internet is truly vast and the ultimate vessel for the ridiculous.

The Museum of Broken Relationships. Most depressing yet bizarrely intriguing idea ever?

I just discovered a new blog put together by smart women. The Hairpin.
 

A sweet little animation on unusual plurals. For those of you who are language nuts.

I just discovered that there is a gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun: thon.

How did I not know this existed? Isn't anyone else interested in this?

Monster University.

Removie Posters

Movie posters, with one letter removed from the title. Hilarious and awesome results.

Movie Review: The Sapphires

Last week, B and I (and a close friend of ours) went to see The Sapphires. And I don't know about the other two, but I thought it was excellent! I had high expectations of this film, and it did not disappoint at all.

The film is set in 1968, and follows a quartet of singers (Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell) from a remote Aboriginal mission, who are discovered by soul-loving manager (Chris O'Dowd). They start out briefly singing country and western, but Dave - the manager - steers them in the direction of soul classics like I Heard I Through The Grapevine, What A Man, Who's Lovin' You, and Sugar Pie Honey Bunch. The girl group take their act to auditions in Melbourne and are picked up - to sing for the troops in Vietnam.

One the one hand, The Sapphires is a light-hearted, fun movie. The music is great, the cast is charming, and there's a lot of warmth and dry, Australian humour. On the other hand, the film is set during the Vietman war - half of it takes place actually in the war, on site - and it also deals extensively with the endemic racism faced by people of colour. Not only are the Sapphires in Vietnam to perform for (only) black troops, but one, Kay, is a living example of the stolen generation. Kay's sub-plot explores the way she reclaims her Indigenous heritage, and I thought it was a subtly effective part of the story. In addition to the Australian racism on show, the American troops are shown to have similar experiences, with one white soldier refusing treatment by a black medic. The two sides - Australian and American - are brought together towards the end of the film, when the assassination of Martin Luther King is reported and the loss is shown to affect not only on the US troops, but on the Indigenous Australians in the mission back home.

But one thing I liked about this film is that these issues are carefully woven in amongst the charm, present but not overpowering. The film doesn't shy away from portraying racism and oppression, and the damage caused is visible. But it's presented in a way that's almost matter-of-fact, and the characters don't lose hope or succumb. They refuse to be victims, they take the opportunities they get, and they have fun as often as possible. These women are strong, confident and most importantly of all, they care about each other. They want better lives, they want to be in love; I really liked the message here. I thought this film was well balanced between real-world issues and the idealised fun of the musical genre.

So, overall? Go see The Sapphires. It's a charming, fun film, with a fantastic soundtrack and a real-world background.

The Life of Pi

Yann Martel's internationally best-selling novel Life of Pi is a truly incredible book. The reader is promised 'a story to make you believe in God' and even if it doesn't fulfil that promise it is certainly a story that provokes wonder and is an utter delight to read. 

It is the story of a young Indian boy named Piscine 'Pi' Patel who is on a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean. He survives the shipwreck only to find himself in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, a Spotted hyena, a zebra and an orangutan. To not go in to too much detail it is an incredible story, in the truest sense of the word. A philosophical fairytale that may not make you believe in God but which takes you on an enlightening journey.


I don't know how, but someone has managed to make a movie based on this book.


Directed by Ang Lee, Life of Pi is to be released in November this year. I'll be going along if only for the curiosity to see just how this tale becomes a film.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Pedro Almodovar is one of my favourite filmmakers, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is one of his best and best-loved films. I went to see it this weekend at GOMA, as part of their program celebrating Spanish cinema, and it was a great way to spend Sunday afternoon.

SBS sums up the plot quite succintly:

High atop a posh Spanish penthouse, three women have come to the end of their mental ropes: Pepa (Carmen Maura) teeters around atop her stilettoes as she obsesses over Iván (Fernando Guillén), the lover who just jilted her over the answering machine; her neurotic best friend Candela (María Barranco) seeks refuge at Pepa's place because she recently realised her lover is a Shiite terrorist; and Iván's ex-wife Lucía (Julieta Serrano) was just released from a 20-year stint in a mental institution. One of them is about to commit murder unless the other half-crazed femmes fatales can stop her.

Filmed in the 80s, it's full of bright colours, dramatic moments, fantastically tacky clothes, and a plot that belongs in a telenovela. It's also an oscar-nominated masterpiece of cinematography, and the film that brought Almodovar to international attention. The cast is fantastic; Carmen Maura stars alongside a raft of kooky and brilliant Spanish actors, including a very young Antonio Banderas and the fabulous Rossy de Palma. Like a lot of Almodovar's work, the film is a charismatic blend of heartbreak and comedy, pulled off in a flamboyantly crazy yet simultaneously genuine and earnest style.

The whole film is engaging, warm and entertaining as hell. It's going to be screened one more time at GOMA, on Friday 10 August. GOMA Cinemateque is screening many of Almodovar's other films as well, and if you've never seen any of his work, I cannot recommend his films enough. I hope to make it to a few more myself.

If I had to make one criticism, it would probably be of the Cinematheque itself, and the film quality and sound. They seemed to use the original reels when they show this kind of retrospective. Perhaps it's for artistic reasons, perhaps they have no choice when it comes to screeners, but it results in an occasionally patchy experience. Otherwise, the GOMA cinemas are definitely worth a shot, for their unique programs alone. (If it helps, the price of tickets is actually cheaper than most mainstream cinemas, so there's that, too!)

Pedro Almodovar at GOMA

Five for Friday no. 24

Paramount Pictures' epic 100th anniversary photo as featured in Vanity Fair.

25 things you didn't know about Mad Men.

This post in A Pair and a Spare makes me feel better about my long-term secret desire to own sequined shorts.

Photo courtesy of A Pair and a Spare.

Geolocated tweets mapped in real time.

Grilled pineapple guacamole. I want it now!

The much anticipated Gatsby

The much talked-about, much-anticipated, much-discussed The Great Gatsby has almost arrived.

The official trailer has just been released and from the look of it, this movie has all the elements that make a Baz Luhrmann movie great. Doomed love affair, out of this world sets and costumes, an escape into a seductive fantasy world we all want to be in; right up until the moment the protagonists, blinded by the glitter and the glamour, fall into self-destruction.




I read on twitter (which went crazy) that the trailer was giving one women Romeo and Juliet excitement flashbacks. Watching the trailer for the first time at home I understood. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet was a major movie from my childhood. Not because we studied the play in English - that was long after the movie had been and gone. It was one of those movies every person my age saw and loved. It created iconic scenes and major stars. It made Shakespeare sexy and wild and dangerous. I own the DVD and I still love the film. Claire Danes and Leonardo di Caprio look so young now but they were of an age that I in my high school years could relate to. Not to mention that scene when you first meet Romeo and he's silhouetted against the sunset, smoking and brooding like an underweight James Dean. Even the soundtrack we all had to have with its mix of grunge, soul and disco.

Like Romeo and Juliet, Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby has hedonism, passion not to mention thrilling music and I cannot wait to see it. 

Five for Friday no.14

The Audi German Film Festival starts soon, held at Palace Centro. I'm going to to go as many films as possible this year, and you should too. See the Goethe Institute site for the best info on the film selection playing in Brisbane and film times.

Scathingly witty insults by famous people.

Beyonce has a tumblr.

Because it's kind of on-topic for a lot of my wonderful friends at the moment: an orange wedding dress. It looks a lot more fabulous than you might think.

I want to eat ALL OF THESE!

Remix this

There's a dude on YouTube who makes the best movie remixes. I first encountered the Alice vid...


Then I caught a link to the Snow White one just this morning...

And there's heaps of others, they're all pretty awesome! Enjoy!

Dear Oscars coverage,

Dear Harpers Bazaar and Vogue Australia Oscar coverage on twitter,

Love it. Keep up the good work. You made my Monday much easier to deal with.

Regards,

B

P.S. My favourite dresses would have totally clashed if they’d been in a photo together.

See what I mean?

P.P.S. And then there was Meryl Streep who wore gold, won gold and then hugged a huge golden statue. I wish I was that cool.

For decades, Disney have been taking classic fairytales and twisting them into more marketable shapes and throwing them at an unsuspecting, gullible, young female audience. (I still don’t have a fringe like Ariel! Why, Mr Disney, WHY?!?).Fairytales make good movies. There is a solid story arc, there are goodies and baddies, often some sort of romance, every character is archetypal and it all rounds itself off with a nice, solid moral that Grandma would be proud of.

It would seem that fairytales can be endlessly re-imagined and re-interpreted as well, if that recent redigestion of classic tales as box-office movies is anything to go by. Look at Tangled, Red Riding Hood, Hoodwinked, Alice in Wonderland and Puss in Boots.

The best example of this re-imaging of a classic tale is the forthcoming release of not one but two versions of the classic Snow White. The best known original version of Snow White is that of the Brothers Grimm, though several other countries had their own related versions. The Brothers Grimm was the one most shamelessly ripped off by Disney, with the magic mirror, the poisoned apple , the seven dwarfs.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is famous for being a lot of firsts, including Walt Disney’s first full-length feature film, the first full-length animated film produced in America, the first in colour and a couple of other records.

Now in 2012, . These two films look to be polar opposites of story telling. Snow White and the Huntsman is dark, fantastical and has a healthy drop of chilling evil. The only problem I have with this film is Kristen Stewart as Snow White. Really? Can anyone believe Charlize Theron would be threatened by her? Come on.

Mirror Mirror on the other hand is a bit cheesey, has HUGE dresses and I'm guessing a very predictable story line.

I won’t lie, I want to see them both.

Brisbane International Film Festival 2011

In just a matter of days the 20th Brisbane International Film Festival will be starting in cinemas all over the city. BIFF this year has a very nifty, post-modern logo but more importantly it has an interesting line-up of local and international films. There is nice selection of incredibly depressing-sounding films, an interesting range of disgusting horror and a focus on surf films. I'm not particularly interested in any of those. I like a variety of films but for some reason, BIFF this year is comparatively thin on the ground for me. That isn't to say that the selection isn't impressive and there aren't many film-goers in this city going 'Squee!' at the possibility of seeing Human Centipede 2.

This is my list of want-to-see at BIFF 2011:

• Bonnie and Clyde



• A Dangerous Method



• Melancholia



• Goodbye First Love



• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy



• Let the Bullers Fly



• Spud



• Dos Hermanos

Chuck and I planned to get a 6-movie pass. Now we just have to find 6 movies we both want to see.

See the full BIFF 2011 program on the website.

When childhood movies are just as good as you remember them.

In the last month I have watched 2 movies from my childhood that were every bit as good as I remember them.

The first was Babe. When I first saw Babe in 1995 aged 11, I LOVED it. I laughed at the mice, I cried, I got so excited in the thrills of the end competition. It was a great movie. It was nominated for Best Picture in the 1996 Oscars, if that means anything to you. Didn’t to me at the time, like the rest of the world I was just in love with the talking pig with the heart of gold.

On holiday in Vietnam recently – and yes, holiday blogs are coming – Jane and I were relaxing in our hotel room one afternoon, escaping the heat of the day and flicking through the TV channels. We’d seen some really terrible movies in our daily down time – The Jerk Theory, Post Grad – so when Babe came on we both quite excited. 45 mins in to it we were both lying on our stomachs on our beds, close up to the TV, face in hands with rapt expressions of enjoyment as Babe charmed his way to fame.

It was brilliant. It was magical. I laughed and *almost cried and we both agreed it was still a great movie.

Everything about this movie was good. Especially the mice.

The next childhood movie I watched was Jurassic Park. I have very vivid memories of the first time I watched Jurassic Park. My parents had refused to allow me to go and see it in the movies because it was too scary. So when it came out on video, the kids down the road rented it out and one Sunday afternoon we kids all got together and watched it. I remember so well sitting there on their brown carpet, clutching a pillow to my chest being scared out of my mind by the T-Rex and the car scene and then when the Raptors came along I lost it completely. Scare of my life until I saw Alien a few years later.

Then a week or so ago, I found myself sitting on a brown couch watching Jurassic Park for the first time since 1993. Even though this time around I knew that the T-Rex and the Raptors were coming, it had been so long since I’d seen the movie that I’d forgotten all but the most obvious details. I am not ashamed to admit it scared me good and proper. I might even have screamed on a few occasions when Raptor heads suddenly burst through walls. At one point I clutched a pillow to my chest in memory of that first illicit viewing, but it only made me more scared. There was a supply of wine accompanying the viewing and that a definite improvement on my 9 year old self's 1993 viewing.

If you didn't find this scene scary, you're a dirty dirty liar.

If I watched Jurassic Park again this weekend, it wouldn’t scare me so much. It’s not so terrifying really; it was only the time span that made this second viewing so potent.

Totally forgot this guy was even in the movie. It's ALL HIS FAULT.

So while there have been many occasions when I’ve gone back and watched a beloved childhood movie only to find that it’s lost the magic as I’ve aged (Men In Tights, I’m sad to say), there are some films that are good no matter what age you are and if they can make you feel the way you did when you first saw them at 8 or 10 or 11, then so much the better.

Have any of you re-watched a movie from your childhood and it’s been just as wonderful as you remember?

I might have yelled at the TV sometime around now...